


No English

by icedcoffeebro



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Español | Spanish, Foster Care, Foster Parents, Kid Fic, M/M, They’re all Married, bc I said so
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-22
Updated: 2019-07-22
Packaged: 2020-07-11 09:20:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19925587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icedcoffeebro/pseuds/icedcoffeebro
Summary: Sonny, Mike, and Rafael are foster parents. Their current kid doesn’t speak English.





	No English

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bicarisi](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bicarisi/gifts).



> HAPPY BDAY TO MY BF!!! i started shipping barisi bc of him so <3
> 
> Victor i love uuuuu

“Pablo García,” Sonny reads, “Raf! He’s a latino, just like you,” he passes the file to his husband, who scans it and rolls his eyes.

“He’s Mexican, Sonny,” he hands the file to Mike, “I don’t think we have much in common, unless he wants to sit down and listen to me rant about their current administration,” 

Sonny can swear he hears his husband mutter something about baseball in Spanish. 

“He’s coming tonight,” Mike says, “we should get everything ready, let him know we won’t hurt him.” 

They all do their pre-kid arriving routine. Rafael cleaning the house, Mike rearranging the kids room, and Sonny cooking. 

“Did the case mention past abuses?” Rafael asks, as he gathers some empty beer cans from the living room. He swears his husbands have no taste buds. 

“No,” Mike says from the kid room. 

“But they can always slip up on noticing,” Sonny adds, as he prepares to cook dinner. 

“We all work in SVU here, Sonny,” Mike says. 

“I’m just saying, it has happened before and we know what happens next,” 

“Sure,” Rafael says, “the one the kid has bonded with the most talks them down,” he throws away a video game magazine, “just like an interrogation,”

“Well, when you put it that way,” Mike says, they all chuckle. 

***

As soon as they throw themselves on their sofa once the work is done, the doorbell rings. 

Sonny bolts up, as usual the most energetic, and opens the door. Their usual case worker and a six year old with black hair, brown skin, looking up at them with dark brown eyes. Sonny offers him a smile, and the boy looks down. They’re used to this. 

“This is Pablo,” Rachel, the social worker they usually get, says, “I know this is sudden, but we really needed to place him for the night. And you were available,”

“Hi Pablo, I’m Sonny,” Sonny gets down to eye level with the kid. He doesn’t react to Sonny talking to him. 

“Mr. Carisi,” Rachel says, Sonny stands up, “I wasn’t done,”

“Sorry,” he says, a blush giving color to his face. Mike smiles a little. Sonny has always been more than eager when it comes to new kids to foster. 

“We also chose you for another reason,” they all remain unfazed. The three of them working on Special Victims has always prompted social workers to hand them difficult cases, “you see, Pablo only speaks Spanish,”

“Oh,” Sonny says, turning to face Rafael, “well, that’s alright” 

Rafael nods, knowing this isn’t okay for his husband. He’s the foster kid whisperer. Always ready to fix them. 

“Rachel, thank you for all your hard work,” Mike shakes her hand, “would that be all?”

Rachel offers him a wide smile; Rafael and Sonny have a secret bet going about when will Mike realize Rachel flirts with him, despite him being married to two men, “That’d be all, Sgt. Dodds,”

“It’s Mike for you, Rachel,” he says, and Rafael could swear she drools, “I’ll walk you downstairs,”

As their husband leaves, Rafael and Sonny turn to look at each other. Rafael shrugs at Sonny’s worried expression, then turns to look at Pablo.

“Hola Pablo,” he says in his immaculate Spanish, Pablo looks up from the ground, “soy Rafael y soy abogado,”

Pablo perks up at this, apparently surprised about Rafael’s Spanish. He scans over Rafael’s expensive clothes once again. And Rafael feels a bit embarrassed. 

Sonny approaches the kid, “Yo soy detective, mi nombre es Dominick Carisi Jr. pero todos me llaman Sonny,” the kid turns to look at Rafael, probably because of Sonny’s accent, Rafael shrugs, “no sé mucho Español,”

Pablo doesn’t reply to this. Mike enters the apartment again, Rafael and Sonny look at him expectantly. He crouches down to Pablo’s height, “Hola Pablo,” he says, “yo soy Sargento Mike Dodds,” 

Rafael is well aware that, despite his efforts, that’s the only Spanish Mike knows, so he regains control of the conversation again, “Pablo, dime, ¿Tienes hambre?” Pablo nods vigorously. 

“Vamos,” Sonny says, guiding them to the table. 

Pablo eats in silence. Mike and Sonny do too, for once in their lives. Rafael assumes they don’t want to make Pablo feel left out. And he doesn’t want to make his husbands feel that either. But he knows there needs to be a certain bond with the child. So he can at least sleep. 

“Pablo, mi esposo Mike,” he points to Mike, “no está trabajando por el momento. Él se quedará contigo durante el día. No habla español, pero cualquier cosa me puede marcar y yo ayudo,” Pablo nods. Rafael returns to the mac and cheese. 

“¿De dónde eres?” Pablo asks Rafael. He’s taken aback by the fact he still has a baby voice. But he doesn’t point this out. 

“Bronx,” Rafael says, Pablo stares at his clothes once again. Rafael regrets his fashion choices for the first time in his life. 

“Mi mamá vino de México,” Pablo says. 

Rafael understands now what Pablo was asking, “Oh, mi familia de Cuba,” 

Pablo looks satisfied with this interaction and continues eating his mac n cheese. 

Rafael only then notices his husbands staring at him, he assumes they expect a translation, but he shrugs. 

“Voy a cama,” Sonny says, standing up. 

“I’m calling it a day,” Mike agrees. 

They get up and head towards their bedroom, Rafael knows they feel helpless, but in Rafael’s defense, he did push Mike and Sonny to take an intensive Spanish course before meeting Lucia, but they said it wasn’t necessary. She’d be fooled by their charming blue eyes. They weren’t wrong. But she did say less-than-nice things about them 

***

“I swear to God, I never thought Spanish with a Staten Island accent was possible and ye—“ Rafael furrows his brow upon seeing Sonny stare into empty space, “what’s wrong?” he turns to face Mike.

Mike rubs Sonny’s back, “This is hard on him, he’s usually the best with kids and well,” he looks at Rafael, “you’re not,”

“I mean,” he sits on Sonny’s other side, holding his hand, “he only speaks Spanish, love,”

“They should have at least given us a heads up,” Sonny grunts. 

“Why?” Mike asks. 

“I mean, two of us are left here, useless, because we can’t speak Spanish! Isn’t that unfair?”

“That he was sent into a home where he can have three loving foster fathers? No, I don’t think it’s unfair at all,” Rafael replies, increasingly growing angry. 

“I’m just saying...”

“Sonny.” Rafael says.

“... I’m trying my best here...”

“Sonny.” echoes Mike. 

“... he’s six years old...”

“Dominick.” Rafael says, letting go of his hand. He stands up from the bed and Mike grows a distance between Sonny and himself. 

“What?” Sonny says. Mike sighs. 

“Not everyone grew up with the same opportunities you did, Sonny,” says Mike. 

“Wh—“ Sonny tries to disagree. But the look on Rafael’s face suggests he shuts up and listens. 

“Sonny,” Rafael pinches the bridge of his nose, “I don’t know if you know this, but I didn’t learn English until I got to elementary school,” he paces from side to side of the room, “and even then, I wouldn’t speak it, because I was so bad at it,” he smiles a bitter smile, “Alex helped me through it, and I wouldn’t shut up once every gringuito could understand me,” Mike and Sonny share a quick look, “look, Sonny,” he once again sits down next to him, “I get you’re frustrated because of the language barrier, but you’ve always been able to connect with the kids, and I’m sure Pablo won’t be the exception,” he licks his lips, “I’ll help as a translator if you want,” 

Sonny nods, “I’d like that,” 

They both turn to look at Mike, “I’ll take that offer if it’s extended to me,” he smirks, “my Spanish is rusty,”

Rafael kisses them both in the lips, “Mis gringos,” 

“About that word,” Mike says as he stands up to get ready to bed, “are you insulting us?”

Rafael snorts, “Don’t worry about it,”

**

Within the next week, Sonny brings over several Spanish books. He has a streak on Duolingo and encourages Mike to do the same. They still can’t have a conversation with Pablo. But Rafael is there when that’s needed. He’s a sweet kid whose mom’s green card had some issues. While she fixed that, Pablo was their responsibility. 

Rafael was glad Mike and Sonny we’re both picking up on Spanish, specially since in the next brunch with them and Lucía, Mike was able to catch up on the fact she was talking about them both being cops, even if Mike was on a break from it since being shot. He had mentioned this fact and she had not switched to Spanish for the rest of the conversation.

When they had to say goodbye to Pablo, he held Rafael tight. 

“Seré un abogado como tú,” Pablo said. Making Rafael tear up. 

“Adios, Pablito, Sonny said, offering his hand for a high five, which was reciprocated. 

“Te extragggnaremos,” Mike said with his best effort. Pablo had turned to Rafael in confusion, as was usual. Rafael just laughed. 

They’d miss the kid. But they loved being able to give different kids the chance to have a loving house, with three dads.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: @rafaelbarbae


End file.
